ATLANTA (AP/WAOK) - The father of Martin Luther King Jr. escaped a sharecropper’s life to become a prominent Atlanta preacher and civil rights leader. Now his legacy is being honored through a community center to help other low-income people find a path out of poverty.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. was known as Daddy King. He was pastor of Atlanta’s  influential Ebenezer Baptist Church and a leader of early efforts to challenge the city’s Jim Crow laws. Preaching education and self-reliance, he instilled values in his children that helped his eldest son become a transformational national leader.

Daughter Christine King Farris said the new $8 million Martin Luther King, Sr., Community Resources Complex down the block from her father’s historic church will provide computer literacy courses, financial planning seminars and other services.